For those interested in gaming and tech

“Apex-Legends-050219-016” flickr photo by instacodez shared into the public domain using (PDM)

The story

Taking place after 30 years from the previous title Titanfall 2, and after the frontier war, the people now settle their differences within the Apex Games, champions from every corner not only compete for reasons of their own, but for glory, fame, and money for their people.

This game has none of the mechs, but it’s still a really fun game. This is a Battle Royale game that you don’t want to skip. Each character has their own game mechanics, which make them all stand out from each other. Try each out and see which one you end up favoring. But before you do, let’s find out a little bit about them.

Characters and their abilities

Bloodhound – Not only is he a tracker, but he’s known for being a game hunter. His role is known as Tracker (obviously right?).

Eye of the Allfather – Locating enemies, traps, and clues in front of you that are hidden.

Tracker – See where you’re enemies have been previously.

Beast of the Hunt – Enhance yourself with the abilities to move faster and locate your enemies.

Gibraltar – Protector of the people. He became this way due to his father losing a limb to save him and his boyfriend from a dangerous mudslide. His role is Tank.

Dome of Protection – Throw down a shield in the shape of a dome that protects damage from penetrating. This goes from the outside as well as the inside.

Gun Shield – When you aim, you’ll have an option to enable a shield over your gun for extra protection.

Defensive Bombardment – Throw down a smoke grenade that will mark a mortar strike down upon that location.

Lifeline – Devoted to helping others, she learned that her family has done unwanted things to become wealthy war profiteers. So she ran away and ended up joining the Apex Games to help fund the Frontier Corp that accepted her. Her role is Medic.

Combat Medic – While having a shield wall, you’ll be able to revive downed teammates much quicker. Healing items are also used faster at 25%.

D.O.C. Heal Drone – Stands for Drone of Compassion. This ability allows you to call a drone that auto heals nearby team members over time. I called it HoT (Heals over Time).

Care Package – Calls in a drop pod that will have a higher quality of gear.

Pathfinder – Booted up many years back, he has no idea who he is or who built him. He joins Apex in hopes of fame to draw the attention of the one who built him. His role is Medic.

Insider Knowledge – Scan a survey beacon that will show the next rings location to your squad.

Zipline Gun – Manually create a zipline that your squad can use.

Wraith – She can rip the fabric of reality with her rifts, but she’s not sure how she became who she is. She joined the Apex Games to get closer to the truth. The truth is supposedly buried beneath the arenas. Her role is Damage.

Into the Void – More from one place to another while not being able to take damage.

Voices from the Void – There’s a voice that warns you when something bad is about to happen.

Dimensional Rift – Create two portals, an entrance and an exit. Or is it an exit and an entrance? Everyone including your enemies can use these portals, so keep that in mind.

Bangalore – Born and raised from a military family, she’s always been the top of her class. When given an order to aid against Militia, her and brother was ambushed. He stayed to let her escape. She fights to earn money to gain passage back to her home base to reunite with family. Her role is Damage.

Smoke Launcher – Launch a smoke canister that released smoke that can be used either for offense or defense.

Double Time – When being shot at, you will gain extra speed when sprinting.

Rolling Thunder – Call for an artillery strike in an area that you mark for you enemies.

Mirage – His mother built the holo device that he uses. Even when his brothers disappeared in the war, he stood by his mother’s side to develop more devices. His mother gave him a set of customized devices so that he could go to the Apex Games for both wealth and glory. His role is Damage.

Psyche Out – Send out a holographic decoy of yourself so that you can flush the enemy out if they are around.

Encore! – Drop a decoy and a cloak for five seconds when someone knocks you down. Keep in mind, this is just the passive ability.

Vanishing Act – Deploy several decoys as once while you’re cloaked.

Caustic – Once names Alexander Nox, he worked for a leading manufacture of gases. In secret he developed these gases and loved that they had the ability to destroy. Once found out, he disappeared. Now he’s presumed dead. He decided to join the Apex Games to experiment on the other champions. His role is Damage.

Nox Gas Trap – These are canisters that release deadly gas. Either by being shot, or triggered when an enemy is in close proximity.

Nox Vision – This ability allows you to see your opponents when you release your Nox Gas Trap(s).

Nox Gas Grenade – Covers an area in Nox Gas.

Currency and Apex Packs

Crafting Metals – Possibly earned from Apex Packs this will give you the ability to unlock cosmetic items. Other than possibly earning them from Apex Packs upon leveling, you can buy them with real money.

Legend Tokens – Free currency that you can earn from each match that you play. They help you unlock store-based cosmetics and other characters that aren’t initially unlocked.

Apex Coins – Only available through purchasing them with real money. You can obtain Apex Packs quicker by using these coins. This currency also purchases specific loot items. Anything that can be bought with Crafting Metals, or Legend Tokens, can be bought with these coins as well.

Apex Packs – These can be obtained one of two ways. Either by leveling or from purchasing them via Apex Coins. These packs give you cosmetics at random for your characters.

Jump sooner than later

There are benefits to jumping as quick as you can. You can do what we call ‘drop hot’ by jumping out and straight down. Another option is jumping out, but towards where ever you and your squad members decide. Depending on where you needed to go, you can glide your way there as well.

However, don’t just glide straight away unless your going super far out from the drop zone. Try to dive straight down as much as possible then glide your way to your destination when needed. The quicker you can get on the ground, the faster you can get some equipment and get into the fight.

Tier Loot and equipment

White – Level one loot. Which is also your most basic equipment. Out of all of the tiers, this is the weakest. Try to upgrade as soon as possible.

Blue – Level two loot. Higher loot that gives more protection, more health, and weapon bonuses than the level one loot.

Purple – Level three loot. Rare to find, but this provides more benefits than the previous tiers.

Gold – Level four aka legendary loot. The rarest and hardest to find loot. This gives even more bonuses compared to all of the others.

Communication is key

You may think that PUBG or Fortnite had good communication, but not like this game. This one has to have communication. Without it you have basically zero chance of survival. You’ll see with those games that unless you know your squad, people will run off and do their own thing. IF that happens in this game then it’s rare.

The best part about communication on this game? You don’t even have to talk! Apex Legends allows you ping just about everything. You’re able to ping needed equipment, equipment that you find, enemy locations, where to travel, and much more.

Drop ships

I’m not talking about the ship that you come out of when you first get into the gameplay. There are OTHER ships that show up within the stage itself. There are two ways to get into one of these:

Launch from the original ship and land on top of it.

From below, take a zipline to get to it.

What are the benefits of these drop ships? Oh reader, that’s a great question! These ships have mid to higher tier loot that will definitely benefit you, IF you can get to it first. In most cases, don’t expect to be up there alone. Especially if you go straight in from launching.

Be ready to put up a fight for this gear. Some players will be ruthless, while the rest panic because they don’t want to get put down so quickly. Good tip here, you’ll see those players jump (more like fall) off the ship. If you get a weapon quickly, you’ll have the height AND weapon advantage on them. Show no mercy for their cowardliness!

Balloons

Throughout the map you’ll notice these hot air type balloons with a zipline attached to them. When the zipline is used, it takes you to the top of the balloon so that you can fly across and get a little bit of distance.

These are especially useful when trying to escape either an enemy, or the incoming barrier as it starts to close in on you. Not all quick escapes are treated equal though. Keep in mind that if there’s a player with good aim, they can shoot you out of the sky or even as you try to land since it slows your down and takes a second to get adjusted.

Be Part of the Squad

Don’t be like I was. Just for the chance of good loot I would separate a little further away from everyone. There were two main disadvantages to this:

If my team gets in a fight, I can’t get there in time to back them up.

If I get in a fight, I’d be by myself and get owned by other players.

Being part of the squad doesn’t mean just being there. Keep in mind that you actually NEED to get into the fight! Communicate, strategize, fight! If you’re squad goes down, remember to help them when you can. I’ve actually seen people run from fights and members of their team just end up going back to the lobby.

Test your weapons

Each weapon has their own shot pattern. Get to know it. Most players just start the game and go. Then later complain because they can’t get a kill. Get a feel for each gun, that way you know how to judge for it’s distance and recoil.

Part of testing your weapon, is testing your sensitivity as well. I couldn’t tell you how adjusting my sensitivity level has made a huge difference for me. I just don’t change the sensitivity in the game, I check my DPI levels on my mouse as well. Not all mice are created equal and have this ability. Check yours accordingly.

Down but Not Dead

Similar to other battle royale games, just because someone puts your health to zero doesn’t mean it’s game over. Your character can crawl around and still be revive. Better yet, if you’ve found one, you can have a shield to still protect you from getting shot and taken out further.

A big benefit to this BR game versus the others, is that even if your health IS zero, still doesn’t mean it’s over. There’s still a chance! You teammates can still grab your banner from your crate and go recall you from respawn beacon. Keep in mind though, you won’t have any gear. Hopefully you have nice teammates who will give you a weapon for protection.

My Experience

Most of what you have seen in this article is from firsthand gameplay. I WAS the guy that would separate from the team, the guy that would panic and fall off that drop ship. One thing I’ve learned about myself to improve my gameplay though is to be extremely aggressive. A lot of players don’t expect that and tend to panic. I know I did.

Hands down though, this is by far one of the most fun games that I’ve played in a long, long, LONG time. I tend to play one of two characters if they are available to me. The first being Bangalore, and the second is Gibraltar. I prefer to have those quick a quick get-away if I need to go around and flank other players or get behind cover and heal up. Otherwise, I don’t mind throwing down a shield for the benefit of the team.

What do you all think? Have you played this game yet? What are your thoughts? Leave comments below and let me know what characters you choose, and why you chose them!